Improvement in bridges



UNITED STATES PATE1\T'I E IcE.

OLIVER AVERY, JR, OB eRoroN, AND cALER BARTHOLOMEW, 0 E'rnA,

NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN BRIDGES.

Specification forming part 01 Letters Patent No. 189,170,datcd April 3, 1877; application filed I l l A September 11, 1876.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that we, OLIVER AVERY, Jr., of the town of Groton, Tompkins county, New York, and CALEB BARTHOLOMEW, of Etna, in the town of Dryden, Tompkins county, New York, have invented an Improved Bridge, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

Our object is to make a wrought-iron or steel bridge for common roads and railways; and the nature of our invention will be apparent as we describe it.

Figure 1 is a View from above of a bridgetruss, made after our plana part of a truss seen from the outside of it. Fig. 2 is a View from above-of a portion of a truss, with the arch-rail duplicated. Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view of the chord-mortise in the foot-block. Fig. 4 is a View of our side bracing; Fig. 5, the form of our foot-block, without the end cross and pile-head mortise in it.

In the figures, a is one of the arch metallic pieces of frame-work shown, made of railroadrails. We place, for the arch-rail, the base edgewise, so that the broad part of the bars shall show on the inside of the bridge. These arch-rails are bent at angles b. Bars long enough to make a bridge of thirty feet span, of one single piece, can be had. Those of greater span need usually to be spliced end to end at the middle bend, where plates 12, such as connect the brace 0 and perpendicular rods 0 at all our angles, make the joining. At the base of the rods 0 are plates 01 above and plates 11' below the chord '1", thus by the bars above and below the arch-rail and its plates, and by the plates above and below the chord, and the tightening-burrs there, the arch-rail is bound fast, and the chord also at these places. The ends of the arch-rail rest on the foot-block e by a shoulder, f, and the two foot-blocks at each end of the truss are bound together by the main chord or tie T, which acts as a support for the timbers or metal beams on which lie the planks of the platform.

We prefer to make these chords double, or of two pieces, r and r, in Fig. 3, and of light H or T railroad-bars. We also turn the base or broad part upward, thus making a broad bearing for the wood cross-beams. In the ends of thechords we cut teeth or serrations, and,

insert them in corresponding serrations of a mortise, 9, made in the foot-block c, and secure them by a wedge, s, driven in between use them, are driven the metallic piles de-' scribed in an application filed August 11,1876, as well as make a ready and secure adjustment of the chords to the foot-blocks.

The arch-rail, the foot-block, and the platform-chord we always bind together by a bolt or strap, j. This bolt goes through the middle portion of the arch-rail, and thence, as seen in Fig. 5, through the block, then between the two chords and through a slot in the wedge s and is fast beneath the bridge end tie i,- or, when the pile-head cap is cast as part of the foot-block, as in Fig. 1, as in the application just named, it is fast to an iron plate, or other part in the hollow of the footblock. This bolt may be made as a bindingstrap, or may go through the separate pilehead cap, or in other ways.

It will 'be noticed that a and a of Fig. 2 represent the arch-rail as duplicated side by side. This is desirable in common road-bridges over forty feet span, and, if for any reason, three or more rails are thought necessary they may be thus used side by side. Arch-frames thus made have either a single or double footblock, with one or more mortises, g, and all else similar but duplicated. Binding-plates or transverse plates, at the angles of the archrails, bind the arch'frames to each other, in

which case the rods 0 go through these binding-bars, and the brace-rods 0 also are connected with these bars or plates.

A middle cross bar or beam, i, is seen fast at r, Fig. 4, to the chord r, and bent upward so as to meet the base-rod c at or nearly at right angles. Such rods and beams are common, but the bending upward, and the stiffer bracing, of the bridge-truss thereby has ad-. vantages. Its mode of fastening to the bridge is similar to what has been..explained.-be the chord single or double, or the:areh\-.-frame single or double.

The same letters refer to the same parts as far as used in this specification, and in that of the application of August 11, 1876, as in that we have set forth" those parts of our'in vention that relate to the joining of our bridge to the piles.

At I is seen the end band or tie of the bridge. It is either inserted through a transverse mortise in the foot-block, or is fast by the bolt j to thecombinedfoot-bloek and headcap of the bridge, as has been said, to" be more useful when piles support the bridge; as in the application that has been referred to. This mortise and tie is toothed or serrated similar totheehord r.

Platesdand d are used above' and below the ohordrfor two purposes-one toholdthe various parts of the chord together; and, sec

0nd, to bind the chord fast to the rodsc, so i that there shallb'e neither an upward nor a downward motion or vibration. The beams or bars, whose ends'are bentupwardto brace" the bridge-truss, act asplates on the'rods' where they are used, an'd"while thusaeti'ng are themselves bound fast to the'baseorplat- I form part of 'the bridge.

teeth or-"se'rrationsof the chord and aperture floeked together by akey, s, as set forth.

2. The foot-block a with a serrated recess, h, or transverse aperture for the tie i, said tie bein'gbound to the foot-block or in the aperture, as set forth.

3. The middle cross beams or ties 11 fast to the lower part of the bridge, and bent or curvedupward outsideof the bridge, incombination with the rods 0 fast to the end of said beam or beams at or'nearly at right angles to the beam an d braoing the bridge truss," a'sshown and described.

41 The 'chordr,' having its base hp'ward and" ends-serrated, asand forthepnrpose set forth; 5'; Thetie'i fastpri lockedto the foot-block as-a transverseend tie or band',asset forth.

CALEB BARTHOLOME Witnesses:

Sf J. PARKER; O. P. HYDE. 

